Sixty-three years after, community still trades by barter in Cross River

The Esuk Mba community market in Akpabuyo Local Government Area of Cross River is still practising trade by barter as a means of exchange for food items since it was established in 1956, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

According to NAN, the market, which is located in a remote village in Esuk Mba in Akpabuyo, is a weekly market that starts from 7.am in the morning and ends at 12noon every Saturday.

Villagers usually move their consumable items to the market in exchange for the ones they are in need of.

This practice, NAN learnt had been in peaceful existence among members of the community on every market day since 1956.

The Community’s Youth Leader, Mr Asuquo Effiong, who conducted NAN Correspondent round the market, said the market which serves as a tourists site to most visitors, was in dire need of a facelift.

He told NAN that the practice was still in existence because the market was handed over to them by their forefathers.

According to him, the market is also significant because it was also a point of activities during the period of the slave trade in Nigeria.

“We grew up to meet this market. We hold it so much in high esteem and we want to sustain it. We use it to remember our forefathers and to sustain our culture.

“As you can see, they are varieties of food items on this section for exchange. In this market, you can bring your palm oil and exchange it for garri, yam, fish or plantain as the case may be.

“The market is close to the river side and our people here are predominantly fishermen. The community is not comfortable with the size of this market; there have been no expansion of the market since inception.

“In addition, we don’t have any good school here, no portable drinking water and health post. We need government intervention in this community,’’ he said.

A market woman, Mrs Eno Etim, who brought in yams for exchange for palm oil, told NAN that the tradition had been with them for ages.

According to Etim, she had no palm oil in her house, hence she brought in four tubers of yam to exchange for a four litre of palm oil.

Also, Mrs Grace Okon, told NAN that she brought in periwinkle, popularly called `mfi’ in Calabar language for exchange for garri, adding that it had helped them over the years to safe cost in view of the scarce financial resources.

NAN observed that the most of the roofs in the thatched houses inside the market had already fallen off, while the woods that usually give the houses a standing position were lying on the ground.

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